In Iowa, we have a new director of our Department of Education. Her name is Mackenzie Snow. Prior to coming to Iowa in June of 2023, she had worked for the Virginia Department of Education for fourteen months. The focus throughout Ms. Snow’s career was as a longtime advocate of state-funded private school scholarships. Snow has no classroom experience, and an undergrad degree in political science.

It will be Ms. Snow’s new responsibility to oversee all of Iowa’s special education services and a massive transition, if HSB 542 is passed as is.

This bill includes raising new teacher pay. It does not mention all teacher pay. And it takes the services of Iowa’s nine area education agencies and crushes them. The governor said this will not take away special education services, making it sound as if they would provide more. Without the structure of our AEAs the services for special needs children could double and triple or simply in small districts, be unattainable. Raise teacher pay, yes, but no on dismantling our current AEA system.

Other services AEAs provide that are being taken away are Early Access, if you have a child who isn’t thriving, providers come to your home to help you diagnose, work with, and secure necessary services prior to preschool. The bill takes away all professional development from paraeducators to principals. And schools will no longer have any media services, the bill doesn’t say where or how any of these gaps can be filled.

Our AEAs have accountability, they are governed by their own locally elected boards and evaluated regularly by Iowa’s Department of Education. Our AEAs spend most of their budgets on special education services and have a wealth of knowledge and experience behind them. In the new bill every AEA employee who does keep their job, will now be accountable to Mackenzie Snow.

Superintendents have been working on the math of how they might be able to replace services. So far those who have looked into it, in both urban and rural districts are coming up short. It shouldn’t be hard, given the newness of our new director, and time for input from all shareholders, that the AEA section of this bill needs to be killed. As Iowans, we can work together, without a consulting firm, to tell us what we have and what we need to improve.